Yes!? NO! - The all purpose Yes arguing and complaining thread

Oops! Wrong band..

Spoiler

I have no complaints, love Yes!

 

I guess I'm surprised at all the complaining. I like all Yes from the late 60s to now...some more than others, but generally like all of it.

 

I agree - that's a great version of Owner. Howe doesn't frown the whole time and actually contributes. I've seen him live a few times playing that song, and he always seemed like he hates doing it.

 

Cinema right into owner on that performance is great and probably because Rabin was there they played Cinema. Howe has said he would rather play Changes but Squire keeps pushing them to play 0wner.

Scott B

 

Well the thread title does invite it...

 

Well, this is really disappointing. H+E is up on youtube, probably not much longer. Everything that makes Yes great is noticeably missing from this album. It does sound like they're trying, but not very much and the material is so weak. I liked Fly from Here and thought Magnification was really good. Hell, I thought Open your Eyes was really good, but this is just not happening. The 3 album show was probably my favorite concert last year. Going to the show next month and will enjoy hearing CTTE again, but this new album... I hope they can put together one more good record, as I would hate for such a great band to bow out with this as the last..

 

One of the most surprising things I've come across in Yes fandom, especially on this site, is the love for the album Drama. This is just one of those cases where it's like, I have different ears or brain than others, because it just seems so obviously weak.

ca-me-ra ca-me-ra, I am a camera.... or whatever....

Yeah a lot of is that it Jon Anderson is the freaking LEAD SINGER, how can you do an album without him? But also, the material is just weak.

I think any band that exists for more than around 10 years transitions away from leading cultural relevancy. Then they end up sounding like some lesser band that's influenced by the earlier version of themselves. I think Drama is the perfect case- it sounds vaguely "proggy" but with none of the strong hooks, melodies, POWER and energy of Fragile. Tempus Fugit at least has a groovy bass line, so that's something, but the rest... blech.

I used to cap my Yes interest at Going For the One but even that platter has gone down in my eyes.

In vast contrast, my love and admiration for their truly great music has actually gone up. I can't sing the praises of South Side of the Sky, Yours Is No Disgrace and Gates of Delirium enough.

 

Thank you!!! Love of so many for Drama is still one of the biggest mysteries to me. There are a couple of good instrumental bits here and there, but! The vocals kills it all. What was Chris thinking when he invited those guys?! Why didn't Howe put a stop to this?? *sigh. Only explanation that comes to mind - they were desperate to continue as a band... So they grabbed onto any meager opportunity no matter how ridiculous it was.

As for I am a Camera - Gentle Giant released a by miles better song of the same name the same year.

 

Agreed. The materiał on Drama is generally not that great. The playing absolutely is though, which is it's saving grace for me. Not a great album though, IMO.

 

haha, I agree with Hitler

please don't take that out of context

 

Probably better that you edit that post...

 

I think you have to put things into context of the time. Music was changing - new wave was just becoming a big thing, and Yes' style (and prog in general) had been written off by the punk crowd as dinosaur music. When Anderson and Wakeman left, the remaining Yes members wanted to not only continue, but update their sound to fit a bit more with the times. Letting the Buggles join the band was probably seen as a logical choice to Howe/Squire/White, by giving them some talented musicians to work with and to move their sound forward a bit into the 80's.

Obviously it wasn't quite as drastic a departure/update of their sound as 90125 was shortly after, though that wasn't originally going to be Yes music to start with.

 

OMG-never heard that before never want to hear it again.

 

Agreed. In some ways, Drama can be seen as a continuation of the sonic streamlining that we'd heard with Yes on the preceding two albums, only without Anderson's increasing penchant for new age whimsy and Wakeman's cheesy synth tones (I'm referring more to Tormato than GFTO, of course.).

 

No worries, just have a drink and forget about it...

 

seriously? it was harmless, lighten up

 

Drama is one of my favorite Yes albums because it's so different. Couple the fact that you take prog vets and team them with a new wave duo and it makes it that much more interesting. I like the more aggressive stylings of the album on a whole. And, sorry, but to bitch about the lyrical content of Drama in contrast to some of Anderson's astrological hippy dippy leanings of the past catalog? Uh, ok.

Big fan of the Rabin stuff, too. At least it took some risks and wasn't more of the same.

 

this isn't true, they didn't write to keep up with the times and letting the buggles wasn't a thought out choice. the three remaining members were writng music and Horn was being brought in to produce and by happenstance it came together by recommending Downes then Squire asked Horn to contribute and he reluctantly agreed...it wasn't as planned as you said....matter of fact Anderson started to write and record with them and left after getting fustrated. the material on song for seven was andersons music for the next yes album, its all on tha documentary on youtube from 2008

 

I still consider the debut album to be their finest.

 

Some of it gets too AOR for my tastes, but Drama certainly is an underrated album overall. And any album with "Tempus Fugit" on it is pretty essential IMHO. I think that's actually the first thing I ever heard by Yes, way back when I saw the video on some music show as a preadolescent.

 

Agreed about "Tempus Fugit". I think I saw the video of that on either early MTV or maybe a show like "Night Flight" and was like, "damn! that's an incredible riff!" Definitely a song that made me strive to become a better player by learning that tune though I was still quite young.

 

I would pay to hear Tom Waits sing "Heart of The Sunrise".

 

Well yeah of course Anderson's lyrics are absurd. But they just fit better with the music he made with them, and it went with his unique voice.
What I'm saying is- when you go nuts, do it all the way. Drama is like sorta-prog but with a more normal singer, making the weirdo silly bits stick out all wrong.

 

Okay, that's fine to reimagine oneself, make a new sound, whatever. Sometimes that is a very positive phenomenon as was the case with King Crimson. But why oh why didn't they hire Trevor Horn as a producer only? Choosing such a crappy vocalist after Anderson - big mistake. Should have gone for Tom Waits then to really shake things up.